We got up at a normal time this morning. Christine was working on her investment stuff and I wrote yesterday’s blog. We had breakfast and then we both said, “I’m going back to bed.” I think the jet lag and a couple of full days caught up with us, so we slept in and didn’t get up until after noon. I think we needed the sleep. After that, we still didn’t feel like doing much, so I read and Christine did whatever she does on her computer.
In the late afternoon, we decided to walk over to Spinola Bay and have dinner at our favorite restaurant, Rafffael’s. It’s about a 40 minute walk along the promenade around Balluta Bay and along Tower Road to Spinola Bay. It’s a nice walk offering great bay views. We passed by my favorite building , Balluta Buildings, an Art Nouveau apartment block built in 1928.

There are 20 apartments in the 3 blocks and each is large and luxurious. At one time, the address was one of the most sought after in Europe. I read that of the original 20 apartment owners, 16 are still owned by heirs of the original owners. I really hope that this building stays intact and survives for a long time. You can’t tell from the photo above, but the architectural details are beautiful. I also read that the flooring in all the apartments is wonderful Maltese tile of exceptional colors and patterns.
As we strolled along, we took lots of photos. Of course, we have all these photos from each of our trips to Malta, but we never tire of seeing all this.








Every time we visit, I look to see if a particular building is still present in Spinola. It’s a ruin, but for some reason I think it was once a beautiful place. It makes me think of a tiny castle. It’s still there, but much the worse for wear and sandwiched between high rises. It’s probably only a matter of time before it gets demolished and another ugly high rise takes its place. Malta is terribly overdeveloped.

Another building we look for is one that Christine lived in as a child. It’s definitely worse for wear, but it appears that maybe someone is renovating it, either that, or they are preparing to tear it down. It now has scaffolding around it and some netting. I hope it’s being renovated.

We arrived at Raffael’s. Initially, we thought we would want to eat inside due to the wind (still windy, but less so than Sunday), but it was really a pleasant evening and so we took a table outside so we could look out over Spinola Bay.

Christine likes to come here and order Timpana, a Maltese dish that is a baked macaroni. Louis made Timpana for us when we were in Australia. He used a recipe from his Maltese mother’s cookbook. This was the dish that Christine asked her mother to make her for her birthdays. I had a nice spaghetti vongole e pescespada. Both were delicious.


We really enjoyed our meal. We then strolled back around the bays to our flat. It was just dark enough that the lights were reflecting nicely in the water and the wind had died down. The walk did us good after all the eating we did.

Our lazy day ended with ice cream and another episode of Bridgerton. It’s been a good day.!
Hi! Just caught up reading about your latest adventures in Malta! Is Timpana kinda like Lasagna? The views are amazing and I feel like I’m starting to remember street names and places you’ve talked about before. Enjoy!